It’s been evident that we have an incredible opportunity. People who follow this blog and our facebook, 410 bridge, bigstuf, npcc, etc, have been asking how they can help. We have secured thru our network an unbelievable amount of money, sent a number of Dr’s, found air transportation for a lot of folks and guided a number of people in the right direction to get involved. A lot of this was with the help of Shaun King as well as some of our board members with planes and friends who are doctors.

It’s become apparent that we have a responsibility to use our network and resources to do more. However, there are too many stories about people showing up in haiti without a good organizational structure to make their trip as much of a success as it could be. That is certainly understandable in a chaotic emergency mode. So, we are looking for the right partners who are on the ground, preferably who have been there for years and have a great reputation and know how to structure and organize. We want to send people and resources but we really want to make sure that whenever we do that we are working with partners who really know how to use teams and resources.

So, please send me names and organizations, if you know them, who would be the right people to work with who are already there and ready to receive and organize any volunteers who may want to come. We can arrange the transportation and put the right people on the ground, we just need them to work with the best people once they get there.

Send me info…any info you have on organizations who can do that.

thanks

We’ll keep you informed on what we are doing and how we are moving forward as things progress.

lanny

Ok, so I started cleaning up my desktop on my computer and saw waaaay too many thing i had been keeping on there ready to put on the blog someday. I found older blog posts with fun videos that no one ever saw cuz no one used to come here. So, I am gonna start putting new videos up about every other day. You may see them in the center of the main page but you may have to click on the blog thing so see them embedded on the blog. And remember while you are here, you should play the music on the player, oh wait, not while you are watching the video cuz that would confuse you. So, check out the blog every few days and watch for new stuff. I decided during the Holidays, I’ll just give all of the readers here Christmas presents of intriguing videos. Tell your friends to come join the fun. You’ll see stuff here you won’t find anywhere else…well, maybe.

So we will start with this video done two years ago. It’s one of those Holy Wow, videos where you say how did they do that. I saw it a few years ago and now that i know how to do the social media thing , I’ll share it with those of you who are just getting up to speed as well, It’s a polaroid moment. Enjoy: It’s a bit pixellated.

I’m hungry. I’ll wait. I’m hungry. I’ll wait. Dang…I’m hungry. I guess I’ll just wait.

Two of the greatest qualities of life: Wisdom and Patience.

Hopefully this site is easy to read and navigate. I’m still learning it myself. But here are a few suggestions. The center column that is on the home page here at lannydonoho.com has a number of videos that will show up randomly each time you visit the site. So, if you want to see the latest one, you need to click on the video tab at the top and it will take you to a place where you will see a bunch of thumbnails (not like the real calcium crud  at the end of your thumb) and you will probably be able to tell which ones you have seen and which you haven’t. My personal favorite that i have created is the one where you see me in a tan shirt with all white behind me. It’s a stream of consciousness delivery of the idea of open and closed. If i could figure out how to make it be on the home page all the time, i would do that, but…hey since i can’t, i am blogging about how to find videos on this site.  Hopefully as time goes by, I will get a little deeper and say something that may help you grow new neural nets and potentially add comments about what is going on in your head.  But meanwhile, most of the videos under that tab are worth watching. Checkm  out, stay here for a while. Entertain yourself.

Lanny

For those of you who went to the NYWC (national youthworkers conveniton) we didn’t take time to fully answer a bunch of questions. So here goes.

First, God has been putting pieces together for years.

Became a good friend of Tic Long and Mike Yaconelli many years ago.

Produced all their video for a while.

Time went by, relationships developed.

and…

In February, YS (Marko) called and asked if I would produce the NYWC. I had to ask what that meant exactly… a few times… so we began to talk about it.

I am co producer of Catalyst and have been since it started ten years ago.

I help create and produce The Orange  Conference, which is at the forefront of really giving churches and leaders of youth, kids and young adult areas a look at what is coming down the road… and really how do deal with it in this culture. It’s headed by Reggie Joiner who is one of the best thinkers on the planet. I helped create the environment in the beginning for Northpoint Community Church and of course I have been producing Bigstuf Camps for students for many years so….I had to think about this. Is YS something I could get my hands and heart around?

As I mentioned, I have been a good friend with Tic Long for over 15 years and I had a great relationship with Yaconelli.  But conferences and culture have changed for the past few years and I wasn’t sure this was a right fit. I didn’t want to compete with myself …ie…create conferences that were going to compete with the alliances with the organizations i already had great relationships with… so i had to chat with them first. I also knew that all the folks at YS were great people and I didn’t want to upset their apple cart.  Or make any waves for them.

Then I had a great many chats with Moe Girkins. President of Zondervan, and in spite of many rumors from people who don’t know her, she is an incredible person with much integrity and a wise sense of life and business.

Then, I had the hard decision of having to say, ok, i am interested but, i don’t really need all the stress that happens when an organization hires me and then might want to change everything I have created.

Would that happen???

YS under Zondervan’s guidance was asking for a new change. Something different.  I knew our team  could provide that, but i didn’t know if they would want it once they saw what we were going to create.  I believe strongly in themes and knowing where you are going and why. I believe in communciating with your speakers and leaders to make sure they know where you are going. They should know why you are going there and hopefully, they will want to join you on that road through a conference that really takes leaders on a soul searching journey.

So…after a lot of thought and prayer,  I said if I could start at the beginning and use our technical team and  choose whomever i wanted to be speakers and pay then what they should be paid…and if i could create a band that i knew would have a great understanding of what worship music was and, better yet, really understand leading and music and how we can point people to God through music.

We have the best musicians in the country right around us…in Atlanta. Many of whom have helped us as we started Northpoint Community Church. these same musicians lead students all sumer at our Bigstuf Camps. they lead students and adults at a number of churches. They have played along with the best musicians in the world but their heart belong to Jesus. Music is a tool to celebrate.

Old songs, love songs, songs about time. And these musicians can do all of that.

(Some have twittered this week that they were too showy. I believe those folks just can’t see under the surface of the great musicianship.

Some have wondered about the cover tunes. It’s probably just hard for them to see God in the middle of music itself. (not their fault…we are all products of our heritage)

These musicians are gifted to lead people who want to be led. And there are many genres of music to create different kinds of atmospheres that allow us to celebrate in different ways. That sets us up to lift our voices to the creator of music.

Back to the story ..if you have read this far i am surprised. But it gets better.

So with a clear green light from Marko and from Zondervan, we began the 200 plus hours of calling our friends and acquaintances whom we believed that could be the right pieces to give YS a complete makeover.. Changed things a lot. Give it some order. Make the program flow. Get great leaders in the big room who could communicate to the souls who desperately need more depth and life.  Fortunately, God has alllowed me to become good friends with the wonderfully gifted people I thought could join us in thinking about a new change …and who could also work with us to bring concepts of grace and wonder and thinking and God centered lives into the mix.

I called Andy first. There is no better leader of leaders in our world. He’s a friend .He said “for you Lanny, anything”. I was humbled.

I called Francis next. Told him i wasn’t authorized yet to ask him but if i did get authroized, would he consider it. He smiled on his email and wanted to come work with the Bigstuf team again. I think he just likes Andy…but he knew we were shooting for something solid and balanced and fresh. And he said yes.

I actually just told Reggie Joiner he had to speak because there is no way leaders shouldn’t hear his brilliance. And surely he owed me something because he and I have hosted every Catalyst and Kidstuf and Orange conference together since time began. He is the leader of the Orange conference and if you don’t know what that is, then you need to look it up if you are a youth leader. And come next April. Don’t doubt me on this.

Then came Donald Miller. He and I had also become friends thru conferences i hosted. And then there were a few phone calls i made to him just based on my intrigue of his following Barack Obama. I trust Donald. So, after those conversations i still trusted him. He is living out his own story and telling about it …in a unique God-centered way. He is an artist with words. His life is written as a piece of art and God created art …and my sons are film directors and have pushed all the art buttons in my life and there was no way Donald shouldn’t bring his unique perspective to the lives of youth pastors.

He was in. Just to get to tell people his story about his story and refresh the hearts of men!

Then came trying to find a female that i felt like synchronized with this team. Hmmm. The first person I tried to get was booked solid. So was the second. I didn’t have a third. Then i heard of this girl who spoke at a Giant Impatct event. She brought the house down. I called her. Then i trusted her. I still do and i am so glad she came to two of our events and i hope i get to spend time with her because i want her to see potentially a piece of her life that she may have missed along the way. Her story mesmerized a lot of people but her story isn’t over. None of our stories end up with a nice pretty pink bow around it. Her’s doesn’t but…I have a bow i want to loan her while she learns to tie it on. She has an incredible story and if you haven’t seen it you should check out Homeless to Harvard. About Liz Murray.

Then there came people like Perry Noble and Steven Furtick. There’s a lot of mystique about these guys and how they could be growing their churches so large and if there was some kind of southern thing there that the rest of the world might not understand.Or if their age and their accompishments seem to be an anomaly.  Yes there is. But, when they spoke at our camp, we went out to lunch with them and Reggie and Andy. They asked questions, we talked for hours.. They took notes fast as we could talk. The talked about their fears and their churches and their lives and simply wanted to learn from guys who were older and had been there. If they keep that spirit about them, then they will become not just well known and gifted speakers but great leaders.

Jared Herd: Jared spoke for us in Cincinnati. I’ve know him since he was a youth. Then watched him grow and develop and knew that when Andy and Louie got too busy to do camp, jared would be someone who was sound and steady and authentic. He joined the stage with Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins and a few others in Cincinnati,  and they all gave us a glimpse of why we are here. Who the people were that came before us and how we are all connected. Jared speaks for us every year at camp and we are excited to have both Doug and Duffy back with us this coming summer.

Then their was Margaret. She is just real. She travels and journals and thinks and communicates well in an artistic form what she think when she meets people and sees God in those people and in unusual places… and sees what the church should be in the process.

Tony Campolo. He has been an icon at YS for years. I couldn’t wait to call him because I had once created a video bio of him for a YS convention back in the early 90’s. I remember seeing a picture in his bio that his wife sent to me that showed him standing in front of a university with one of my heroes, Albert Einstein.  When i called Tony and told him about our theme, Time, he was excited. Said no one had ever asked him to talk about that theme before and of course, he had done his Master’s Thesis on that and has debated great minds of physics for decades. His talk in Cincinnati about physics and quantum mechanics and how it tall tied to the Cross was just phenomenal.

Shane Hipps. I heard he had done a talk that kept everyone talking for weeks. But that doesn’t usually sell me. I called him. He was just the nicest guy. And he is smart. And did i mention he was just a great guy? I wanted him to speak just because I liked him and i believe that to be a great communicator you have to have something interesting to say and you should be authentic. He was in.

Skit Guys: Tommy and Eddie are with us at Bigstuf Camps every year. They are very funny and very gifted and…they are REAL. When they come to camp, it is often when I am gone and they take over the hosting MC position because they understand. Not a lot of people understand crowd dynamics and how to be authentic and funny and do transitions, and interview people and be pastoral and lead. These guys do all of that and do it as well as anyone in the country. I love having them at everything we do and was thrilled to have them come back to be a part of the YS experience. Can’t wait to have them back at camp this summer.

There were more people i thought about. Some were out of budget range. Some were unavailable but…wow…the people at NYWC this year are people who are shaping and molding the minds of millions of people. and they know how to explain to us what the principles that guide them can look like in our lives. I want to change the world. I want to see leaders humbly and confidently lead. I want the next generation to forge ahead confidently with faith that goes beyond the walls of the church… to the wall of the courts and the institutions, and the gift shops and boutiques and gymansiums and law offices and wall street and and puts a large crack in those walls and then seams it up to look like it has only a blemish.

Then there was the music. A number of bands had already been approached about doing the 2009 NYWC but no contracts signed. I wanted to start all over. I like most of the band who were booked but…i have watched what happens. Groupies or fans gather at the front….even at an adult conference so they can be closer and jump and emote and try to be a part of the latest phase. I don’t have anything against all that. I just feel the thoughts that i heard from an old friend.( he was actually young and went to sing with Jesus at age 23 just a few years ago.) but as he led worship he talked about  getting people kinda connected to God and then stepping out of the way. Rick was right, when we worship with our voices, it often happens that idol worship gets into the mix. Not on purpose and not in a bad way. But, I like musicians who are as good at what they do as anyone. And they aren’t into the record business, and they don’t worry about how the next gig affects their career. We happened to be surrounded by these very people who sing and play at Bigstuf and at Northpoint and at neighboring churches.  They all had aspiring careers to “make it big” and they decided to give themselves to their family and church and just weigh each option that comes their way to see if it messes with the lifetime relationships they know God has given them. So, you will see on the NYWC stage Jason, Chrystina, Slug, Danny, Danny, Kristian, Casey, Mandy, Candi, Bethany, Ben, Rudi, Sam,Evan, Ryan,Chelsea. These are musicians who are gifted and who love God and love serving. They stand in front of kids and adults every week at different churches and they make an impact on the lives of their communities and their families every day. Oh and Crowder joined us too. Nuff said. He’s great.

THE DARAJA CHOIR. These children are my heartbeat. my unique connection to God. Bigstuf started a new ministry called the 41o Bridge. Look it up. But my vision in the middle of it was to form this choir. God has never done such a powerful thing in my life as to put these loving wonderful children in my life. No explanation needed here if you saw them. Just plan on booking them to come to your church and watch the hearts of you people melt away.

Jeff Foxworthy. Jeff is just a great friend. He happens to be the most well known comic in the USA but to those of us who know him, he is Jeff the guy with the big heart. the hunter, the real deal, the caring compassionate friend. A great husband and father and someone whose fame and fortune have not messed him up. What he does for the world is amazing. Getting to do that with him and his family is a joy. And we get to play poker with him and my boys and friends every few months. those nights are laughter, fun, and deep conversations about God. When Jordan, his daugter coudn’t make it in Atlanta he was glad to go talk about his daughter and what she is doing and to make us laugh all in the same time slot.

Jaimie and Zach, and Jordan. Your willingness to jump into the world and then share it at camp and at YS is a big piece of God’s unfolding plan for your life.

Lisa  Arrindell Anderson, the lady you saw as the professor who grew up as a compassion child’s sister.

Lisa has been a friend for a long time. She acts on Broadway. She has been in a number of movies. She is just incredible. And she just loves Jesus and is humble as she can be. Once again, just to have people in your life who are so talented and who are willing to give their gifts to make a difference in the kingdom. Lisa made us think in ways we didn’t think before.

I can’t believe I get to walk alongside all of these people and do life and ministry with them. If you read all of this and you are a youth worker,come join us at our summer camps. Check’m out at bigstuf.com.

Thanks to Moe and Mark and Marko for letting us create this Bigroom time for you. And thanks Tic for being the one that really brought us all together to talk about it.

So that’s kind of the story. Some people asked and I did what I could to answer. Feel free to ask more questions. By the way, we don’t claim to have the answer to how to do the perfect conference. There are always things that can be done better and certainly there is no way to please everyone. But we were thrilled to present to you a dedicated group of people both on the stage and behind the scenes that did a superb job. From building our stage to pushing all the right buttons.

Thanks for joining us.

Lanny

A song that starts with Whoop Haaaw and encompasses the elegance of the universe. HMMMM.

If you read any of the stuff I do these days, you know that time and space and space-time and quantum physics and the brain and thinking and how it all fits into a Big glorious fascinating cosmological plan….well, I just get excited by all of that. So my friend Brad send me a link to this Glorious Dawn and it’s just kinda fitting that it should show up on my blog. Watch and enjoy.

Wow, I didn’t know i was gonna get a lot of response on my twitter just by having fun with a few whimsical thoughts about “now” and ‘there” in the physics world. As some of you know, i have been reading way too many books on time, and quantum physics and sub atomic particles and what it means to live in this world and universe and how the quantum particles act differently than the big world and how that affects everything. I don’t pretend to even understand a small piece of it, but it has given me something to have fun with as i communicate…so…here is my stream of consciousness about here and now. And you may wanna watch the video in the center of the blog about momentum. Same thought process.

Here is only “here” if you are speaking about that place relative to the immediate things around it. Otherwise, here doesn’t exist because from a universal perspective, where you are is always changing because the earth is spinning and even it it weren’t , the planet would be revolving around the sun and if that weren’t happening, then the solar system is still moving and of course expanding, so “here” really doesn’t exist.

Same thing with “now”. By the time you say it, “now” is gone. Which gives a new appreciation for the transitional phrase we use “now,then”.  When we say now then we are getting close to saying what we mean when we wanna say “now”.

The light cone, so you can see the future past.

Back to here.  When you say “here” it has become “there” but ‘there” changes because if there is meant to be a specific place in the universe, if of course is changing as often as “here” is.

So, “the here and now” doesn’t really exist except in the head of the person who said it. And of course as he or she said it, there were nano seconds that allowed for the process of thinking of the terms, and the time passed during the thoughts of it and the saying of it, so nothing was exactly as it had been just nano seconds before.New neural nets had been built, chemical changes happened. Your own brain had a different shape and make up, the person that was you which included memories and thoughts…all that had changed by the time you go the phrase out.You were a different person so….uh oh….if you said “I am here” …not only were you not here or there, you weren’t even “I” because the “I” that you talked about changed while you were thinking, so if I meant the person you were when you started the thought then “I’ changed and became someone new.Someone , as i have said, that has new cells and who has lost old one, someone who is closer to death and further from birth…someone who became someone else. Time is what is making all the here and now and I stuff change and yet, “time” can’t be explained either. It can be changed and bent and in reality, whatever that is, it is possible for you to exist based on the time space continuum, both in the present and in the future.

Light cones cause the universe to have places in which you could exist in the future before you exist in the present which makes it possible for the future to actually be the past.

That is something you just have to read about because i can’t type pictures which i would need in order to show you how you could be in your past later on in the future.

Ok…that’s all of my thoughts for now…uh…for then…for the time i used which probably won’t ever be here again. But it could. if i traveled fast enough.